Against All Hope

I’m standing there, pruning my plumcot tree, and behold! I see an actual baby plumcot! It’s the size of a large, green olive. I cannot believe it. My tree is not supposed to fruit until I’ve raised another plumcot tree for cross-pollination. It’s not supposed to bear fruit for maybe two more years. I think back to the years of first tasting that apricot-plum hybrid, germinating the seed, planting the young tree, protecting it in the winter, and then waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting.

I’d been learning my lesson on waiting on the Lord and how He can cause fruit to bear in unexpected, improbable places. What a physical reminder today. Isn’t God the one who can make the crocus bloom in the desert (Isaiah 35)? Isn’t God a God of the impossible as well? My oldest daughter—the ecology expert—reminds me that my tree could, after all, be the self-pollinating kind. She also told me to dwell in hope; a far off pollinator might come from a far off plumcot tree and pollinate my tree against the odds.

Whatever the cause, I’m amazed today.

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